1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to integrated circuits, and more specifically to a circuit which utilizes an output driver circuit to output data from a sense amplifier.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, a sense amplifier is utilized to read data from a memory in an integrated circuit. During each read cycle, the sense amplifier senses voltage levels in a selected memory cell and outputs data in the form of a high or low voltage level. In between read cycles, the sense amplifier is equilibrated in preparation for the next read cycle. Equilibrating the sense amplifier can be accomplished by setting the bit lines and the complementary bit lines to the same voltage level.
A problem can arise, however, with the data output from the integrated circuit during an equilibrate time period. During the equilibrate time period, the sense amplifier will not be reading an actual value from the memory. As a result, the output from the sense amplifier can be an intermediate value between logical one and zero. Depending on how this value is read by other devices or output buffers, short duration output voltage swings can occur. This causes undesirable noise internally, due to the high currents drawn by typical output drivers, and on the external data bus coupled to the data output.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an output driver circuit which eliminates noise from data output from an integrated circuit when a sense amplifier is equilibrated in preparation for another read cycle.